“People in a position of authority have a responsibility not to abuse that authority.”

You are writing an essay about your opinion on a scandal. The scandal involved a school principal who was spying on his students over the Internet. You want to say that it was wrong for this principal to spy on the students because of his position. You write this to say that it' also wrong for other people to do similar things.

People in a position of authority have a responsibility not to abuse that authority.

Audio by native English speakers

Audio files are available to
PhraseMix Premium members.

Listen to more than 2,000 audio lessons!

Join PhraseMix Premium!

PhraseMix is the best way to learn English quickly, and listening to the audio lessons is the best way to enjoy PhraseMix.

Become a PhraseMix Premium member to read thousands of English lessons and articles, download high-quality audio, and use our amazing review system!

To "abuse" a power or a privilege means to use it to do bad, selfish things. In this case, it means to use your authority in ways that benefit you unfairly, or in ways that hurt other people. For example, here are some examples of people "abusing their authority":

The admissions director for a university lets her nephew into the school, even though he didn't have good grades in high school.

The head of a department makes his employees go out to get coffee for him in the morning.

A junior high school soccer coach sometimes yells at the players until they cry.